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View SlideshowRequest to buy this photoTom Dodge | DISPATCHBarbara Bergmann and Gordon Grigsby object to a proposed bike path that would run between their house in Mount Air and the Olentangy River. Two other proposals would put the path on the other side of the river from their home.

The Olentangy River drifts lazily past the picture window in Gordon Grigsby’s house in Mount
Air, an unincorporated community in northern Franklin County. He doesn’t want that view sullied by
hundreds of bicyclists who might pedal past some day.

“It would be a disaster,” said Grigsby, a retired Ohio State University professor of modern
literature and poetry.

A neighbor, Benjamin Knepper, wants to maintain the security and the peace and quiet he has
known since he moved to Mount Air 25 years ago.

“It’s a unique place that’s kind of been forgotten for a long time,” he said. “Most of us kind
of like it the way it is.”

Two options would run east of Mount Air, but a third would run along its border, just west of
the Olentangy.

Grigsby’s wife, Barbara Bergmann, and Knepper have written letters published in
The Dispatch that oppose the Mount Air route, citing safety concerns of riding beside Rt.
315/Olentangy River Road, which more than 18,000 vehicles use daily near there.

Others favor the western route, including Jim Silcott, who cycles up the Olentangy Trail to
visit his daughter and her family in Mount Air. He walks his bicycle in the grass along Rt. 315
after the trail ends, he said. “I get paranoid about cars behind me.

“A multiuse path opens up access for people,” said Silcott, a member of Consider Biking, a local
advocacy group.

Consider Biking member Jody Dzuranin posted a message on the group’s website asking people to
write the paper in support of the western route. She referred to Knepper’s letter, writing, “It is
evident he is just using ‘safety concerns’ as a diversion, when his primary concern is that he and
his neighbors don’t want this trail anywhere near the vicinity of their property.”

Gary Schmidt, Consider Biking’s president, said he doesn’t know which route makes the most
sense.

“Mainly, we want to see the trail get built. That’s our position,” Schmidt said.

Metro Parks officials have not decided which route they’ll pursue. Executive Director John O’M
eara said he’d like to begin construction next year.

“There are no easy solutions,” said O’Meara, who had no cost estimates. “There are difficult
things to overcome in both directions.”

Among the challenges along the eastern routes is creating a route up the high banks of Highbanks
Park, he said.

The construction could take several years, said Steve Studenmund, Metro Parks strategic-planning
and land-acquisition manager. One reason: property acquisition.

Metro Parks does own land along the west bank of the river that could be used for a trail, O’M
eara said. The parks system could also use rights of way along roads.

O’Meara said acquisition through eminent domain has never been discussed and is unlikely to be
considered.

Metro Parks is to close on a deal this month to acquire 43 acres along the west bank of the
Olentangy for $1.1 million, O’Meara said. The trail proposed to run through Mount Air would go
through that property.

Metro Parks passed on buying it in 2005 because of environmental concerns. Fuel spills have been
discovered there, but O’Meara said, “There’s no evidence of contamination levels of concern.”

The 13.75-mile Olentangy Greenway Trail starts near Downtown and heads north along the Olentangy
River, ending near Worthington Hills Park. Bicyclists have long wanted a route extending north,
Dzuranin said.